Jingle Bell Run RR

Every year the Friday after Thanksgiving the city puts on a parade of lights downtown that kicks off the

Christmas season and just before the parade the Jingle Bell 5K run and 1 mile walk are held. This is a race that is put on by the Arthritis Association that host many fundraisers like this in different cities and it makes what is becoming a nice little tradition for us since this is now the 3rd year we have done it.

The race goes through our downtown which is rather small and then down to the falls and back again. Since this happens right before the parade people are already hanging out along the street so we have built in spectators for the race and its fun to low 5 the little kids along the way.

And since its the start of the holiday season what more reason do people need to dress up in costume with a lot of people wearing lights since it is just before the parade of lights.

This is the first race this year in which i just took it easy to enjoy everything instead of focusing on posting a good time.

There is also a reason this race is of special interest to DW and I and that is because shortly after we were married 25 years ago she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Running marathons might be difficult and painful but its nothing compared to what someone with RA goes through. She doesn't deserve it and she doesn't complain and I will just leave it at that instead of going into it any further.

This year my kids didn't participate since DS moved to the Twin Cities and DD went to a Soul Crate concert with her cousin. We did have a few friends, DW brother and his wife and son, with most doing the walk instead of run.

Here's the group photo.

DW and I are in the middle.

After I finished the 5K I couldn't find the walkers but it turned out the walk was 1.6 miles which was a little hard for someone with RA.

Fortunately we always have everyone over to the house and we have a pretty good time over some beers and pizza. And some more beers! And some chex mix snack with maybe one more beer.

As far as the rest of my running I have been cutting back with one week that was only 5 miles since I was a little sick for awhile. This Monday was one of the few nice days we've had so I decided to go for a tempo run since I haven't done any speedwork for quite awhile.

I started out with my downhill warmup mile at 8:14 then mile two picked it up to 6:54, but I wasn't really used to that so I decided to make it an interval run and slow it down for awhile. After a little bit though I noticed I was doing a 7:15 pace yet so I changed my mind again and kept it a tempo run. What the heck, it was nice out.

Mile 3 turned out to be a 7:08 pace and it was starting to get more comfortable so the next three were 6:41, 6:42, and 6:43. My uphill cooldown milw was 8:24.

It sure felt good to get out and challenge the lungs again even though it seemed tougher than it was a few months ago.

Well everyone run safe in all this slippery weather that's all over the place!

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